Tsilhqotʼin language

Chilcotin
Tŝilhqotʼin
Pronunciation	[ts̠ˤʰᵊiɬqʰotʼin]
Native to	Canada
Region	Chilcotin Country, Central Interior of British Columbia
Ethnicity	4,350 Tsilhqotʼin (2014, FPCC)
Native speakers	860 (2014, FPCC)
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Na-Dené Athabaskan Northern Athabaskan Chilcotin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	clc
Glottolog	chil1280
ELP
Chilcotin is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Tŝilhqóx / Nen "Ochre River"/"Land"
People	Nenqayni (Tŝilhqotʼin)
Language	Nenqayni Ch'ih (Tŝilhqotʼin Chʼih)
Country	Tŝilhqotʼin Nen

Chilcotin or Tŝilhqotʼin is a Northern Athabaskan language spoken in British Columbia by the Tsilhqotʼin people.

Name

The name Chilcotin is the anglicized form of the Chilcotin name for themselves, Tŝilhqotʼin, literally "people of the red ochre river". It has many variations in pronunciation and in spelling : Tsilhqotʼin, Tsilhqútʼin, Tsinlhqut’in, Tŝinlhqut’in. The form Tŝilhqut’in was considered the correct spelling in the 1970s, the form Tŝilhqot’in is the most commonly used in 2021. The people also call themselves Nenqayni ("people of the Earth", "people of the world", meaning "Native") and also call the language Nenqayni Chʼih (lit. "the Native way").

Phonology

Consonants

Chilcotin has 47 consonants, likely the largest number within the Athabaskan family:

		Bilabial	Dental			Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Glottal
			median	sibilant	lateral			plain	labial	plain	labial
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩	n̪ ⟨n⟩
Occlusive	tenuis	p ⟨b⟩	t̪ ⟨d⟩	ts̪ ⟨dz⟩	tɬ ⟨dl⟩	ts̱ˤ ⟨dẑ⟩	tʃ ⟨j⟩	k ⟨g⟩	kʷ ⟨gw⟩	q ⟨gg⟩	qʷ ⟨ggw⟩	ʔ ⟨ʔ⟩
	aspirated	pʰ ⟨p⟩	t̪ʰ ⟨t⟩	ts̪ʰ ⟨ts⟩	tɬʰ ⟨tl⟩	ts̱ˤʰ ⟨tŝ⟩	tʃʰ ⟨ch⟩	kʰ ⟨k⟩	kʷʰ ⟨kw⟩	qʰ ⟨q⟩	qʷʰ ⟨qw⟩
	ejective		t̪ʼ ⟨tʼ⟩	ts̪ʼ ⟨tsʼ⟩	tɬʼ ⟨tlʼ⟩	ts̱ˤʼ ⟨tŝʼ⟩	tʃʼ ⟨chʼ⟩	kʼ ⟨kʼ⟩	kʷʼ ⟨kwʼ⟩	qʼ ⟨qʼ⟩	qʷʼ ⟨qwʼ⟩
Continuant	voiceless			s̪ ⟨s⟩	ɬ ⟨lh⟩	s̱ˤ ⟨ŝ⟩	ç ⟨sh⟩		xʷ ⟨wh⟩	χ ⟨x⟩	χʷ ⟨xw⟩	h ⟨h⟩
	voiced			z̪ ⟨z⟩	l ⟨l⟩	ẕˤ ⟨ẑ⟩	j ⟨y⟩		w ⟨w⟩	ʁ ⟨r⟩	ʁʷ ⟨rw⟩

• Like many other Athabaskan languages, Chilcotin does not have a contrast between fricatives and approximants.
• The alveolar series is pharyngealized.
• Dentals and alveolars:
  • Both Krauss (1975) and Cook (1993) describe the dental and alveolar as being essentially identical in articulation, postdental, with the only differentiating factor being their different behaviours in the vowel flattening processes (described below).
  • Gafos (1999, personal communication with Cook) describes the dental series as apico-laminal denti-alveolar and the alveolar series as lamino-postalveolar.

Vowels

Chilcotin has 6 vowels:

	Front		Central		Back
	tense-long	lax-short	tense-long	lax-short	tense-long	lax-short
High	i ⟨i⟩	ɪ ⟨ɨ⟩			u ⟨u⟩	ʊ ⟨o⟩
Low			æ ⟨a⟩	ɛ ⟨e⟩

• Chilcotin has both tense and lax vowel phonemes. Additionally, tense vowels may become lax from vowel laxing.

Every given Chilcotin vowel has a number of different phonetic realizations from complex phonological processes (such as nasalization, laxing, flattening). For instance, the vowel /i/ can be variously pronounced [i, ĩ, ɪ, e, ᵊi, ᵊĩ, ᵊɪ].

Tone

Chilcotin is a tonal language with two tones: high tone and low tone.

Phonological processes

Chilcotin has vowel flattening and consonant harmony. Consonant harmony (sibilant harmony) is rather common in the Athabaskan language family. Vowel flattening is unique to Chilcotin but is similar to phonological processes in other unrelated Interior Salishan languages spoken in the same area, such as Shuswap, Stʼátʼimcets, and Thompson River Salish (and thus was probably borrowed into Chilcotin). That type of harmony is an areal feature common in this region of North America. The Chilcotin processes, however, are much more complicated.

Vowel nasalization and laxing

Vowel nasalization is a phonological process by which the phoneme /n/ is nasalizes the preceding vowel. It occurs when the vowel + /n/ sequence is followed by a (tautosyllabic) continuant consonant (such as /ɬ, sˤ, zˤ, ç, j, χ/).

/pinɬ/

→

[pĩɬ]

'trap'

Vowel laxing is a process by which tense vowels (/i, u, æ/) become lax when followed by a syllable-final /h/: the tense and lax distinction is neutralized.

/ʔɛstɬʼuh/	→	[ʔɛstɬʼʊh]		'I'm knitting'		(u → ʊ)
/sɛjæh/	→	[sɛjɛh]		'my throat'		(æ → ɛ)

Vowel flattening

Chilcotin has a type of retracted tongue root harmony. Generally, "flat" consonants lower vowels in both directions. Assimilation is both progressive and regressive.

Chilcotin consonants can be grouped into three categories: neutral, sharp, and flat.

Neutral	Sharp	Flat
p, pʰ, m t, tʰ, tʼ, n tɬ, tɬʰ, tɬʼ, ɬ, l tʃ, tʃʰ, tʃʼ, ç, j ʔ, h	ts, tsʰ, tsʼ, s, z k, kʰ, kʼ kʷ, kʷʰ, kʼʷ, xʷ, w	sˤ-series:	tsˤ, tsʰˤ, tsʼˤ, sˤ, zˤ
		q-series:	q, qʰ, qʼ, χ, ʁ qʷ, qʷʰ, qʼʷ, χʷ, ʁʷ

• Flat consonants trigger vowel flattening.
• Sharp consonants block vowel flattening.
• Neutral consonants do not affect vowel flattening in any way.

The flat consonants can be further divided into two types:

1. a sˤ-series (i.e. /tsˤ, tsʰˤ, tsʼˤ/ˌ etc.), and
2. a q-series (i.e. /q, qʷ, qʰ/ˌ etc.).

The sˤ-series is stronger than the q-series by affecting vowels farther away.

This table shows both unaffected vowels and flattened vowels:

unaffected vowel	flattened vowel
i	ᵊi or e
ɪ	ᵊɪ
u	o
ʊ	ɔ
ɛ	ə
æ	a

The vowel /i/ surfaces as [ᵊi] if after a flat consonant and as [e] before a flat consonant:

/sˤit/	→	[sˤᵊit]		'kinɡfisher'		(sˤ flattens i → ᵊi)
/nisˤtsˤun/	→	[nesˤtsˤon]		'owl'		(sˤ flattens i → e)

The progressive and regressive flattening processes are described below.

Progressive flattening

In the progressive (left-to-right) flattening, the q-series consonants affect only the immediately following vowel:

/ʁitʰi/	→	[ʁᵊitʰi]		'I slept'		(ʁ flattens i → ᵊi)
/qʰænɪç/	→	[qʰanɪç]		'spoon'		(qʰ flattens æ → a)

Like the q-series, the stronger sˤ-series consonants affects the immediately following vowel. However, it affects the vowel in the following syllable as well if the first flattened vowel is a lax vowel. If the first flattened is tense, the vowel of the following syllable is not flattened.

/sˤɛɬ.tʰin/	→	[sˤəɬ.tʰᵊin]		'he's comatose'		(sˤ flattens both ɛ → ə, i → ᵊi )
/sˤi.tʰin/	→	[sˤᵊi.tʰin]		'I'm sleeping'		(sˤ flattens first i → ᵊi, but not second i: *sˤᵊitʰᵊin)

Thus, the neutral consonants are transparent in the flattening process. In the first word /sˤɛɬ.tʰin/ 'he's comatose', /sˤ/ flattens the /ɛ/ of the first syllable to [ə] and the /i/ of the second syllable to [ᵊi]. In the word /sˤi.tʰin/ 'I'm sleeping', /sˤ/ flattens /i/ to [ᵊi]. Since, however, the vowel of the first syllable is /i/, which is a tense vowel, the /sˤ/ cannot flatten the /i/ of the second syllable.

The sharp consonants, however, block the progressive flattening caused by the sˤ-series:

/tizˤ.kʼɛn/	→	[tezˤ.kʼɛn]		'it's burning'		(flattening of ɛ is blocked by kʼ: *tezˤkʼən)
/sˤɛ.kɛn/	→	[sˤə.kɛn]		'it's dry'		(flattening of ɛ is blocked by k: *sˤəkən)

Regressive flattening

In regressive (right-to-left) harmony, the q-series flattens the preceding vowel.

/ʔælæχ/	→	[ʔælaχ]		'I made it'		(χ flattens æ → a)
/junɛqʰæt/	→	[junəqʰat]		'he's slappinɡ him'		(qʰ flattens ɛ → ə)

The regressive (right-to-left) harmony of the sˤ-series, however, is much stronger than the progressive harmony. The consonants flatten all preceding vowels in a word:

/kunizˤ/	→	[konezˤ]		'it is lonɡ'		(zˤ flattens all vowels, both i → e, u → o)
/kʷɛtɛkuljúzˤ/	→	[kʷətəkoljózˤ]		'he is rich'		(zˤ flattens all vowels, ɛ → ə, u → o)
/nækʷɛnitsˤɛ́sˤ/	→	[nakʷənetsˤə́sˤ]		'fire's gone out'		(tsˤ, sˤ flatten all vowels, æ → a, ɛ → ə)

Both progressive and regressive flattening processes occur in Chilcotin words:

/niqʰin/	→	[neqʰᵊin]		'we paddled'
/ʔɛqʰɛn/	→	[ʔəqʰən]		'husband'

Bibliography

• (unpublished manuscript).
• (unpublished manuscript).
• (revised version of the author's Doctoral dissertation, Johns Hopkins University).
• (unpublished manuscript).

External links

• The Chilcotin Language (YDLI)
• Bibliography of Materials on the Chilcotin Language (YDLI)
• Official Tsilhqotʼin Language Website